you guys (USA) write the date differently. you put the month first, instead of the day, and I'm not sure but I think you may be the only country that does this?

Yeah! I was kidding my aunt about that just the other day, in fact. She came here from Ireland a few years back and has had checks returned and ATM deposits rejected because when she's not thinking about it she'll say a date, like October 23rd or something, is 23-10-13, and American computers think no such date exists. At least her daughter, my cousin, was born on August 8th, so whichever of those two 8's she puts first, the date or the month, it won't matter.

But then there's another relative from over there whose birthday is August 12th, and he put it on some passport form once upon a time as 12-8, so to this day, despite all attempts to change it, the US government lists his date of birth as December 12th instead of August 8th. (The US government never admits a mistake...)